


escaping two houses (both alike in dignity)

by fangirl_squee



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Minor Violence, copying your escape plans from shakespeare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 14:34:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12234858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl_squee/pseuds/fangirl_squee
Summary: Have faith in The Plan, Jodie, she told herself, just like she'd been telling herself for the past two years. Have faith in The Plan, and it'll all work out.





	escaping two houses (both alike in dignity)

**Author's Note:**

> In honour of the new Bluff City, here is a happier ending than the last Bluff City fic I did.
> 
> Unbetaed, but special thanks to maddie for looking it over and some Key editions.

It all happened so fast.

 

Two families, heading to the same location in the dead of night. Two families, entering quietly, unbeknownst to each other. Two families, opening doors and expecting one thing and finding their long-time enemy on the other side of it instead. 

 

Two shots rang out in the darkness, the sound of it lost to the chaos of the night but hitting their marks.

 

The Verandas found Sonny slumped against a wall, gun still held loosely in his hand and bullet holes on the opposite wall where he’d returned fire. Or tried to.

 

The Whitakers found Jodie around the corner. It looked like she’d attempted to take cover behind an overturned couch. She hadn’t been quick enough. Bowling doesn’t do much for cardio.

 

Their still-warm bodies were pulled from the warehouse before the cops could take them. The Verandas and the Whitakers might not agree on much, but they both knew better than to leave evidence like that behind.

 

Neither side mourned much, only adding the fallen to their list of grievances against the other side. The bodies were sent, without fanfare, to the city morgue, with a bribe to an orderly to help their spark of creativity on how and when the bodies had been delivered.

  
  
  


It all happened so fast. 

  
  


That was the idea.

  
  


Jodie woke slowly. Her mind felt a little fuzzy, and her side felt sore. She tried to touch it, frowning in confusion when she couldn’t properly raise her hand. She opened her eyes, tamping down on the feeling of panic. She was in a body bag, which meant this was all going according to the plan.

 

She held her breath for a moment, listening for any sound of movement in the room. The faint sound of a dripping tap was the only sound other than her heartbeat.

 

She blinked a few times, trying to wake herself up, before wriggling to reach for the swiss army knife in her pocket. Carefully, she tried a few of the attachments, hooking the can opener into the teeth of the bag’s zip. The sound of the bag opening seemed so loud in the still room. Jodie paused, the swiss army knife clutched tightly in her hand, waiting. 

 

The room outside the bag was almost as dark as inside of it. Another good sign. One good thing about being in the bottom of the barrel was that no one paid enough attention to put you in the spotlight after you died. 

 

She sat up carefully, wincing as the sticky fabric of her shirt pulled at her skin. She plucked at it, feeling to make sure none of the components of her homemade squibs had fallen out and wincing a little as her her fingers brushed against bruises.

 

Jodie eased herself out of the bag, trying to move as quietly as possible as she rolled up the body bag, putting in a nearby bin. It didn’t look like there was any paperwork for her yet. Good. That made things much less complicated. Always easier to make someone disappear without a paper trail. 

 

There was another bag on the table next to her’s. It didn’t look like there was any paperwork for that bag either. Jodie took a deep breath, slowly unzipping the bag. 

 

Sonny Veranda lay there, still in the dim light of the morgue. She could just make out the flecks of dried blood on his cheek. She swallowed, placing her hand gently on his chest. 

 

Her hand shook more than she would have liked.  _ Have faith in The Plan, Jodie,  _ she told herself, just like she'd been telling herself for the past two years.  _ Have faith in The Plan, and it'll all work out.  _

 

Sonny’s eyes twitched behind his eyelids, a frown creasing his face. A small movement, but proof of life 

 

Jodie let out a rush of air, somewhere between a laugh and a shaky breath. She tapped her fingers on his chest. Sonny shifted a little, but stayed asleep. Jodie glanced over her shoulder at the doors. There was still no sign of movement, but they couldn’t hang around. The plan was flexible, but it wasn’t  _ that _ flexible.

 

Her hand hovered over Sonny for a moment. They’d been in communication, sure -- they'd had to, to figure out the moving parts of it all. They'd seen each other here and there, shadows behind trigger fingers. They'd talked enough that she felt sure, but being sure was different than standing next to Sonny’s sleeping body, wondering where was okay to touch. 

 

Almost without thinking, she cupped his cheek in the palm of her hand. It felt rougher than she remembered. He hadn’t had as much of a beard back then. Back when casual intimacy between them had felt easy. 

 

Slowly, Sonny’s eyes fluttered open. He squinted at her for a moment, then smiled.

 

“Hey,” said Jodie, careful to keep her voice low, “welcome back.”

 

Clumsily, Sonny raised his hand to cover her’s. Jodie put the urgency of their situation out of her mind, letting herself feel the warmth of it, the way his fingers slotted in-between hers. It felt easy. She smiled.

 

“Did it work?” rasped Sonny.

 

“Well, we both woke up in body bags,” said Jodie, “so… so far, so good?”

 

“Right, right,” said Sonny.

 

Jodie laughed, pressing his lips together to try to muffle to sound. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

 

She helped him untangle himself from the body bag, putting it in a different bin to where she’d put her own. Sonny blinked, swaying a little on his feet in a way that suggested his body was still working through the drugs they’d used to slow down themselves down enough to pass for dead. That was okay. The plan allowed for that. She'd just have to be on a little higher alert to cover him. 

 

Jodie slipped her hand into Sonny’s and he blinked at her, a smile slowly blooming across his face.

 

“We’re really doing this,” said Sonny.

 

Jodie bit her lip, trying to hold back a grin. “Yeah.”

 

She pushed open the door a fraction, checking the coast was clear before pushing them open, leading Sonny behind her. She tried not to clutch his hand too tightly. 

 

Prior scouting of the hospital under the guise of a fictitious Pre Audit Review helped Jodie to navigate towards a small, mostly-disused change room at the end of the hall. She felt behind the lockers, her fingers reaching for the slim plastic bag that held a change of clothes for them both. She held Sonny’s out to him, turning to change her own. She wished they had time to shower, but the clean clothes would do a good enough job of covering up fake blood and real bruises until they could get away. Luxuries like showers could come later. 

 

Jodie stripped quickly, putting her old clothes in the bag and reaching for the clean ones (each item purchased with cash at least four months apart from each other). She glanced over her shoulder at Sonny. He’d stipped out of his shirt, wiping at the sticky fake blood along his collarbone in an attempt to clean it off. She could see the bruise from the squibs impact dark in his skin, a match for the mark on her side. Jodie put her hand over his and he inhaled sharply, looking up at her.

 

“Here,” said Jodie softly, “Let me.”

 

She wiped at it carefully, aware that his skin probably felt as tender as hers did where the squib had gone off. It was the closest they'd been to each other in a long time. The closest she'd been to anyone in a while, really. She'd almost forgotten what it felt like, the warmth of someone else's skin under her hands. Sonny’s hands flexed at his sides, his muscles tensing under her hands.

 

Jodie leant back slightly. “Sorry, I-- too much?”

 

“No,” said Sonny quickly, “Just… we probably don’t have time for this, huh? The Plan?”

 

He put his hands gingerly on the bare skin of her waist. She stifled a gasp at the sensation. Jodie’s hands stilled, one resting on his shoulder and the other on his chest. His heart beat felt steady under her hand, if a little fast. That was fair, her own felt a little fast too, not only because of the daring escape they were part-way through with. 

 

The crook of his neck looked like the perfect place to rest her head for a moment, safe and warm. But there was still a long way to go before the Plan was complete. 

 

“I guess not,” she said, “but soon.”

 

“Yeah,” said Sonny, “Yeah, soon.”

 

It felt difficult to pull herself away from him, as though she was pulling against the force of a magnet. But they had to follow The Plan. The Plan had got them this far. It could get them the rest of the way out.

 

At the end of the row of lockers, there was one with a door with slightly uneven hinges, easy enough to bump out of it’s lock without much force. Jodie put the car keys in her pocket, slipping the bag with their old clothes inside her handbag, taking a breath before she looked towards Sonny.

 

“Ready?”

 

He nodded. They headed towards the service elevator. The camera in it had broken two days earlier due to an “unexpected” malfunction and was due to be replaced tomorrow. When lucks not on your side, you had to make your own coincidences. 

 

“The keys belong to the old red Toyota in the right-hand corner,” said Jodie quietly, “We head straight there, we get in, we leave the car when we get out of town.”

 

“I know,” said Sonny.

 

She shifted closer to him in the elevator as it slowly moved down, close enough to feel the warmth of this skin with touching. She couldn’t afford to let herself get distracted. Not now, when they were so close.

 

Sonny slipped his hand into her's and squeezed. Jodie stifled a gasp. She could feel Sonny looking at her out of the corner of his eye. She squeezed back. 

 

_ Ding _ .

 

Jodie braced herself as the doors opened, but there was no one. Just the half-empty parking lot, the fluorescent lights barely illuminating their way. Bad for safety but good for obscuring yourself from security cameras.

 

She could feel her hands shaking as she gripped her handbag. They were so close. So close to getting away. So close to not bracing for the next work call, the next terrible thing she might be asked to do. She glanced at Sonny. His jaw was tight.

 

“Do you want to drive?” said Jodie.

 

Sonny flinched, startled. “Uh. Sure.”

 

Jodie let out a breath of relief as the key fit into the car easily. Sonny leant over to unlock her door and she slipped in.

 

She swallowed. “I can’t believe we just did that.”

 

“Yeah,” said Sonny quietly.

 

They both paused for a moment. Distantly, she could hear the sound of highway traffic, the same highway that would take them away. 

 

Sonny's jaw twitched again. He glanced in the rearview mirror. Jodie looked back, but there was no one. 

 

“Are you worried that…. I mean, when has anything in our lives ever been this easy to pull off, right?” said Jodie.

 

Sonny shrugged. “It’s pretty easy to play dead when no one alive particularly cares.”

 

Jodie thought of her own loving parents, and how they’d slipped away from her, first with fewer and fewer phone calls ( _ they were just busy _ she’d told herself,  _ and they’re safer that way _ ), and then with calls from hospitals, from palliative care facilities. And then no calls at all. 

 

And then she thought of Sonny’s parents, their voices sharper than she’d ever heard his be, barking orders into phones. She thought of the way he’d talked around them when she’d first met him, they way she’d babbled about her father teaching her to bowl and how he’d mumbled something about Finnegan teaching him the basics.

 

She’d heard what his family did to Finnegan. Everyone had.

 

Jodie reached over and covered Sonny’s hand where he was gripping the steering wheel with white-knuckled hands. 

 

“I’m alive,” said Jodie.

 

Sonny blinked at her. “I… know?”

 

Jodie moved closer, leaning over the gearstick to tilt his face towards her. “I’m alive, and I care.”

 

“Oh,” breathed Sonny, closing the gap between them.

 

It wasn’t much more than the slow, warm press of their lips. Jodie carded her hand through his hair lightly. She felt the warm pressure of his hand on her leg. They didn’t have time to linger on it, not yet. But it was a start. 

 

There would be time enough for lingering yet.

 

Sonny leant back a little. He let out a long breath. “Okay.”

 

Jodie ran her thumb across Sonny's bottom lip before she drew back, settling into her seat.

 

“Okay,” said Jodie. 

 

Sonny pulled out of the garage slowly, out of the hospital and towards the freeway, towards their future. 

 

Jodie laughed. 

 

Sonny flicked his gaze towards her “What?”

 

“Nothing, I just… “ Jodie pressed a quick kiss to Sonny's cheek. “Nothing. Eyes on the road.”

 

Sonny’s face brightened at her touch. “Yes ma'am. Where do you want to go?”

 

Jodie grinned. “Everywhere. But especially somewhere with cheese fries.”

 

Sonny grinned back. “Cheese fries. Yeah. I think I can manage that.”

 

Jodie leaned in close again, letting her lips linger. Sonny slipped his arm around her waist. She leant her head in the crook of his neck as she watched the lights of the Bluff City skyline get smaller and smaller, fading away in the darkness as they sped into their new lives. 

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi: mariusperkins


End file.
